After the housing crash of 2009, many houses were bought at discount prices by buy to let landlords, and the share of buy to let rose to a record share of the market. But, 2016 was a turning point, with government legislation imposing higher tax rates on landlords in an effort to reverse declining home-ownership …
Ireland can lay claim to be the third richest country in the world. In the 1970s, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, largely agrarian and with real incomes that lagged its neighbour across the Irish Sea. But, then over the next few decades, the Irish economy started to grow faster than …
The current account on the balance of payments measures the inflow and outflow of goods, services, investment incomes and transfer payments. The main components of the current account are: Trade in goods (visible balance) Trade in services (invisible balance), e.g. insurance and services Primary income account – includes – compensation of employees, investment income from …
Faced with a black hole in public finances, the Labour government have announced an end to universal winter fuel allowance for pensioners. It will now be means-tested. It means 9.4 million individual pensioners will lose the £200-£300 a year allowance. It will save the government an estimated £1.6bn a year, which as we shall see …
This is a graph showing US inflation in the post-war period. In a nutshell, US inflation has been fairly low and stable in the post-war period. The exception being in the 1970s and early 1980s when inflation became embedded. After the Second World War there was lingering inflation for a few reasons. Firstly, the war …
In May 2016, Britain voted to leave the EU. The only reason David Cameron held a referendum was because he was convinced he would win. But, he hadn’t expected Boris Johnson to make a last minute switch and help galvanise a Vote Leave campaign. Brexit – The Big MistakeWatch this video on YouTube The result …
If you had bought a house in 1996, in just eleven years it would have increased 258% £51,367 to £184,131 (258%). After the credit crunch, there was widespread pessimism and stagnant wages, but it didn’t stop house prices rising 83% from 149,709 to 273,000. In the past 50 years, UK house prices have risen almost …
Since 2019, The German economy has gone into an unexpected decline, posting the 2nd worst performance in Europe. GDP is stagnant, the car industry in decline, real wages falling and discontent rising. For many decades, Germany was the powerhouse of the European economy with rapid growth transforming living standards, but this has come to a …